The Seahawks Dismantled The Broncos In Every Way Imaginable

By TONY MANFRED

The Seattle Seahawks destroyed the Denver Broncos 43-8 to win one of the most lopsided Super Bowls in NFL history.

The Seahawks beat the Broncos in every way that one football team can beat another football team.

The game started with a Broncos safety 12 seconds into the first quarter, and somehow got worse from there. Peyton Manning played one of his worst games as a Bronco. He made it to 280 yards, but needed 49 passes to do so. He also threw two costly interceptions, one of which was returned for a touchdown.

It was a shockingly comprehensive beating by the Seahawks. Seattle did what they did well all year — pressed receivers, rushed the passer, forced turnovers, got into manageable 3rd downs — only better, and all at once.

They beat them on special teams, when Percy Harvin returned the second-half kickoff for a touchdown:

BI/Cork Gaines

They beat them on offense, when Russell Wilson threw for 206 yards and two touchdowns, including this incredible throw-and-catch to Jermaine Kearse:

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They beat them on defense, when the preposterously good Seattle secondary held Peyton Manning to eight points, including a pick-six:

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They beat them without doing anything at all, when Denver botched the opening snap for a safety:

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It wasn't one of those blowouts where there was an avalanche of points. The Seahawks simply piled on points in an orderly, consistent manner until the game was a farce.

Seattle was the best team all year, and they played their best game tonight.

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/seahawks-win-super-bowl-highlights-gifs-2014-2#ixzz2sGYJs76Z

Seahawks QB Russell Wilson Is Super Bowl Champion And A Future $100 Million Man

By Kurt Badenhausen, Forbes Staff

The NFL is a quarterbacks’ league more than ever. New rules make the signal caller the most important man on the field. Teams that win consistently year after year typically have one thing in common: an elite quarterback. The best quarterbacks of this generation have won Super Bowls over the past decade, including Peyton Manning, Tom Brady, Drew Brees and Aaron Rodgers. Time to add a new name to the list with Russell Wilson.

Wilson led the Seattle Seahawks to a dominating 43-8 victory in Super Bowl XLVIII. It was a team win with touchdowns from the defense and special teams, but Wilson was the Seahawks’ architect Sunday night and over the past two seasons. Wilson completed 72% of his throws Sunday for 206 yards and two touchdowns. He added 26 yards rushing on three carries. Wilson didn’t win the Super Bowl MVP award (linebacker Malcom Smith took home the hardware), but many thought he deserved the nod. Some view Wilson as simply a game manager and Seattle’s success a result of its league-leading defense, but make no mistake — Wilson is a star.

Seattle Seahawks QB Russell Wilson raises the Lombardi Trophy after his team’s dominating 43-8 win in Super Bowl XLVIII.

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The second-year player has racked up a 100 passer rating in each of his first two years, along with over 1,000 yards rushing, while leading the Seahawks to 28 wins, including the playoffs. The only other QBs with a 100 passer rating each of the past two seasons are Rogers and Manning. Wilson has done it at a bargain rate as a third-round draft pick on his first contract. His 2013 salary was $526,217, or less than Manning makes per game, providing the Seahawks ample salary cap room to address other needs.

Wilson is set to earn $662,434 in 2014 and under the 2011 Collective Bargaining Agreement, rookie contracts cannot be renegotiated until three seasons have passed. So Wilson is locked into his salary for 2014, but what happens after that? Wilson isrepresented by baseball agent Mark Rodgers of Frontline Athlete Management (Wilson was selected by MLB’s Colorado Rockies in the 2010 draft). Rodgers can look to recent Super Bowl QB winners for guidance where contracts invariably hit nine figures.

Last year’s Super Bowl winning QB, Joe Flacco, inked a six-year, $120.6 million contract in March, including $52 million guaranteed with the Baltimore Ravens. Rodgers, who won the Super Bowl in Feb. 2011, signed a five-year, $110 million contract extension with the Green Bay Packers in April that included a record $62.5 million guaranteed. Brees won the Super Bowl in 2010 and signed a $100 million deal two years later.

Super Bowl-winning quarterbacks are also the most marketable players in the NFL. Peyton and Eli Manning, Brees, Rodgers and Brady are the only NFL players that make $5 million a year off the field (all appeared on our look at the world’s 100 highest-paid athletes). They’ve quarterbacked eight Super Bowl winners combined.

Wilson is already one of the NFL’s most marketable players. His jersey was the NFL’s second best seller in 2013, behind only Peyton Manning. He already has endorsement deals with Nike, Alaska Airlines, American Family Insurance, EA Sports and Levi’s. Wilson’s price tag just went up with Corporate America.

Wilson joins Brady, Ben Roethlisberger and Kurt Warner as quarterbacks to win a Super Bowl in their second year in the NFL. His team will not be leaving the NFL’s elite any time soon. The Seahawks tied the 1971 Miami Dolphins as the youngest Super Bowl winners ever with an average age of 26.4 years. The Seahawks are the fourth youngest roster in the NFL this year. Wilson has a chance to headline a dynasty in Seattle.

Also on Forbes:

Highest-Paid Football Players 2013

1 of 10

Chris Graythen/Getty Images

+show more

#1 Drew Brees

Total earnings: $51 million
Salary: $40 million
Endorsements: $11 million

Brees has become one of the NFL's most successful pitchman with a dozen endorsement deals, including Nike, Procter & Gamble, Verizon Wireless, PepsiCo and Wrangler. His 2012 contract extension with the Saints included a $37 million signing bonus.

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Big Brands Are Bailing On The Super Bowl, Because At $4 Million A Spot It's Too Expensive

Super Bowl ad prices have been rising tremendously in the past five years, and in 2014, Fox is reported to be charging $4 million per 30 seconds.

Combined with the return of the 17-day-long Winter Olympics, an event absent since 2010, some big brands like Subway are choosing to opt out of the biggest night in TV.

"You can make an argument that the total cumulative audience across the Winter Olympics is actually bigger than what you are going to get in the Super Bowl," Subway chief marketing officer Tony Pace told Ad Age.

Nielsen reported that 108.4 million people watched the Super Bowl last year, with 90 percent of the audience in the United States. The 2010 Winter Olympics drew an average of 24.4 million primetime viewers, and had 190 million people watch some of the games on one of NBC Universal's networks, according to NBC.

Real estate agency Century 21, which advertised in the past two big games, told Ad Age that they rather make an investment in an international audience.

And Cars.com is skipping the upcoming Super Bowl after six consecutive years in it because they don't have a new campaign to justify the price tag. "When we launched a new campaign every year through the Super Bowl, you really had to wait until the Super Bowl to start advertising," Cars.com CMO Linda Bartman said. They instead want to distribute their ads throughout the year.

Nielsen

2013's Super Bowl price was $3.8 million

This isn't necessarily part of a bigger trend, or even the start of new habits for these brands.

GM's former head of marketing Ewanick proclaimed last year that the $3.8 million Super Bowl ad price was an unjustifiable expense, but now that he's gone, GM is back in the game.

With 85 percent of Fox's Super Bowl ads sold by the end of August, the rising price of admission wasn't much of a hindrance to most brands, especially those with big, new campaigns. Anheuser-Busch In-Bev has launched two beers in a row the past two Super Bowls, and this year Nestlé has announced it will be launching a Butterfinger peanut butter cup.SodaStream is also preparing its first official television campaign to compete with Pepsi and Coke.

Super Bowl XLVII will be played at MetLife Stadium on Feb. 2, and the Winter Olympics will begin the following Friday. 

SEE ALSO:  An Intuit-Sponsored Contest May Accidentally Result In The First Pro-Marijuana Super Bowl Ad

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/super-bowls-4-million-ad-price-tag-is-too-expensive-2013-11#ixzz2jmMc2cnP